


From the Ashes

by VegasKid013



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 03:21:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15548490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VegasKid013/pseuds/VegasKid013
Summary: BlazeClan is gone, the balance of the highlands is upset, and to it we all are as prey beneath the hunter's claws.Follow Ratfang as she works unceasingly to protect her Clan, wrestles with difficult moral questions, and becomes a murderer; Shatterkit as he sets out on a desperate and reckless mission from which even StarClan are uncertain if he'll return; Scorchpaw as he's forced to confront all these disturbing and awful hints about his Clan leader's past that just keep piling up higher and higher and aren't going away however hard he tries to ignore them, and reluctantly decides that maybe someone should do something about this and it looks like it'll have to be him; and Jaggedpaw as he mourns the loss of everything and everyone he's ever known and tries frantically to survive among the rough, unfamiliar street cats of the Humanplace.There must always be four Clans in the highlands.





	1. Preliminary notes

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Warriors: Redux](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/386018) by Dullard. 



> This story is significantly darker than the average Warriors book. It contains discussion of topics such as apprentice pregnancy, incest, rape, suicide, crises of faith, painful and drawn-out death, and the premeditated murder of kits. Most of it is not graphic, but nonetheless it will be discussed. Please use discretion when deciding whether this story is right for you, or whether you'd be better off reading something else.

Welcome to my Warrior cats fanfic! It's pure self-indulgence. I will probably update intermittently, if at all, and the quality may vary a lot. I'm not following canon very well, and although I take inspiration from Dullard's revised and AU warrior cats world, I'm not following her canon exactly either.

Will put more notes here if I feel like it and when I get around to writing them.


	2. Allegiances

**HighClanners** (23)  
cats from this Clan are typically large, with powerful hind legs for jumping from ledge to ledge or from tree-branch to tree-branch, and have thick fluffy coats to keep out the mountain chill

Leader: Lichenstar -- eldery, pale gray-brown tabby molly with pale green eyes (going more grey with age)  
Deputy: Flametail -- mostly-white calico molly with blue eyes  
_(apprentice: Skypaw)_  
Medicine cat: Littlefish -- unusually small brown and white tabby tom with grey eyes

Warriors:  
Hailclaws -- large pale gray-brown tabby tom with grey eyes and some extra toes  
Redfur -- dark russet tabby tom with striking amber eyes  
Birdshadow -- dark russet tabby trans molly with striking amber eyes  
Iceflower -- white molly with silver tabby patches on her ears and tail, and dark blue eyes  
_(apprentice: Moltenpaw)_  
Flickerstep -- dark silver tabby molly with white paws and dark blue eyes  
_(apprentice: Shalepaw)_  
Blizzardclaw -- longhaired pale silver tabby tom with white patches and hazel eyes, unusually young for a warrior

Apprentices:  
Moltenpaw[heart] -- tortoiseshell molly with one blue eye and one dark brown eye  
Shalepaw[fur] -- dark silver tabby molly with striking amber eyes  
Skypaw[stripe, throat] -- longhaired pale silver tabby tom with hazel eyes

Queens:  
Silkshine -- pale silver tabby molly with a much-admired longhaired sleek soft pelt, a white underside, and dark blue eyes  
_(kits: Lilackit, Morningkit, Shiverkit, Cedarkit)_

Kits:  
Lilackit -- lilac tabby molly with light blue eyes  
Morningkit[claw? flower?] -- longhaired pale red and lilac tortoiseshell tabby molly with dark blue eyes  
Shiverkit[claw] -- sickly lilac tabby tom with white paws and striking amber eyes  
Cedarkit[cloud] -- mostly-red calico tabby molly with striking amber eyes  
Feverkit[claw? storm?] -- sickly black and white molly with light brown eyes  
Shatterkit[fur? pelt?] -- chubby black and white tom with jagged markings and brown eyes

Elders:  
Blindside (formerly Stormclaw) -- dark silver tabby molly with a white hind paw and one dark blue eye, missing the other eye and a good portion of fur from her face, neck, and shoulder  
Cloudthroat -- pure white molly with one dark blue eye and one pale green eye, deaf in one ear  
Rivershine -- pale silver tabby tom with light blue eyes and a longhaired sleek soft pelt  
Kestrelheart -- lynx tom, missing most of a front leg

 

 **FloodClanners** (17)  
cats from this Clan are typically long-limbed and skinny in an underfed sort of way, with large paws good for swimming and navigating the swamp, and they wear mud for camoflauge and to keep off the mosquitos

Leader: Palestar -- lilac tabby molly with gray eyes  
Deputy: Ratfang -- particularly rangy brown tabby molly with mustard-yellow eyes  
Medicine cat: Pinecloud -- large, heavily scarred dark brown tabby tom with a missing eye and ear and a raspy voice, and the remaining eye is hazel  
_(apprentice: Thicketpaw)_

Warriors:  
Dawnflower -- pale orange-and gray tortoiseshell tabby molly with blue eyes  
_(apprentice: Briarpaw)_  
Snakestorm -- dark brown tabby tom with dark hazel eyes  
Spiderstep -- particularly rangy brown tabby tom with hazel eyes  
Blackheart -- black molly with pale green eyes  
Nightfish -- near-black tabby tom with pale green eyes  
Ebonyface -- unusually sleek and well-groomed (for a FloodClanner) black tom with pale green eyes  
Fogwhisker -- small pale gray tabby tom with gray eyes  
_(apprentice: Shadowpaw)_  
Owlclaw -- gray-brown tabby tom with gray eyes  
Rainstripe -- very stripy dark gray tabby tom with blue eyes

Apprentices:  
Thicketpaw[fish] -- longhaired near-black tabby molly with pale green eyes  
Briarpaw[throat] -- rangy near-black tabby molly with mustard-yellow eyes  
Shadowpaw[step] -- rangy black tom with hazel eyes  
Sablepaw[heart] -- ?? [a very young Dog, taller and heavier than a cat already, with black and brown fur]

Elders:  
Fadedleaf -- pale gray tabby tom with three white paws and blue eyes

 

 **ClawClanners** (14)  
cats from this Clan are typically small, short-legged, and slinky like a ferret, which makes it easier to get around their thornbrush-dense territory; their dense pelts help protect them from getting scratched to pieces by the prickly vegetation

Leader: Fellstar -- small grayish tabby tom with orange eyes, missing half his tail  
_(apprentice: Charredpaw)_  
Deputy: Singedmask -- tall thin seal-point molly with lots of scars and a torn ear, half purebred Siamese, half purebred Bengal

Warriors:  
Bitterclaw -- small dark red-brown ticked tabby tom with orange eyes  
_(apprentice: Scorchpaw)_  
Honeydrop -- pale yellow spotted tabby molly with hazel eyes

Apprentices:  
Charredpaw -- near-black classic tabby tom with golden eyes  
Scorchpaw -- dark grayish tabby lynx-point tom

Queens:  
Burningpaw -- gray-black tabby molly with a dramatically contrasting light yellowy underside and orange eyes  
_(kits: Darkkit, Russetkit)_  
Sunspot -- amber molly with vivid black spotted tabby markings and green eyes  
_(kits: Pepperkit, Sweetkit)_

Kits:  
Darkkit[hawk] -- gray-black ticked tabby molly with a reddish underside and orange eyes  
Russetkit -- gray ticked tabby molly with an orangey underside and orange eyes  
Pepperkit[fur] -- dark reddish ticked tabby molly with hazel eyes  
Sweetkit[Mallowkit?] -- amber ticked tabby tom with orange eyes

Elders:  
Foxfrost -- pretty red ticked tabby molly with a fluffy tail, golden eyes, and two badly damaged legs on one side, purebred Somali  
Howlingstorm -- dark grayish tabby tom with golden eyes, often confused due to an old head injury

 

 **BlazeClanners** (1)  
cats from this Clan were typically well-fed and plump, with a variety of body shapes and pelt types -- their plumpness due to their prey-rich grassland territory, and their variety likely due to their open, accepting attitude towards outsiders

Leader: Jaggedpaw -- black and white tom with jagged markings and light green eyes

 

 **StarClanners** (multitudes)  
the honored Dead cats; warrior ancestors of the Clans, sometimes Starwalkers who wander many skies

Amberspot -- beautiful amber molly with vivid black spotted tabby markings and light green eyes, purebred Bengal  
Ashleaf -- small pale grayish tabby tom with orange eyes  
Frecklefang --  
Thousandth -- 

**Non-Clanners**  
human pets; alley cats; rogues

Pop-Tart -- white-and-tabby molly with dark brown eyes  
Nyan -- black tom with green eyes  
Monster -- light brown and white tabby, in a constant competition with her brother to see who can be the most 3edgy5u  
Fang -- light brown and white tabby in a competition with his sister to be the most 3edgy5u  
Max -- orange tabby and white tom  
Ray -- silver tabby tom with pale green eyes  
Crystal -- small fluffy white tom  
Starshine -- white molly  
Starburst -- tailless calico molly  
Starstruck -- black and white tom  
Coca-Cola -- muscular purebred Havana Brown with a deep chocolate coat, pale yellow eyes, and lots of scars  
Grande -- big fluffy dark tabby molly  
[name after the albino monster] -- thin albino tom with red-violet eyes Aquathroat  
Technicolor -- light orange tabby lynx-point tom  
Sassy -- tall, wiry, cream-colored tabby with a white underside and paws, and a raspy voice  
Metallica -- small gray-and-white molly with orange eyes and two silver teeth  
Jetsetter -- near-black tabby tom  
Tuxedo -- handsome black and white tom  
Dreamy -- gray and white hairless molly  
Dizzy -- gray tabby and white patchy-furred tom with a curly coat and whiskers

FUTURE NAMES POSSIBLY  
Cicadathroat  
Radiothroat/stripe  
Frizzfur  
Gingerclaw  
Frecklefang/tail  
Silentfang


	3. Map of the Clans and surrounding territories

This is a filler chapter for if and when I ever get around to making a map.


	4. Shatterkit runs away

_A kit?!_

Ratfang halts in her lone midnight patrol along her border, curls her lip, breathes in deeply to better catch the scent. Yes, it's definitely a HighClan kit -- male, a moon or so from apprentice-age. _But what in StarClan's name can one of those little idiots be doing so close to FloodClan land? Especially with leaf-bare fast approaching, and the border so contested lately, and so soon after their deputy got killed here..._ she wonders, resuming her steps, faster now, and quieter, slinking from moonshadow to moonshadow, pausing only for a quick roll in a convenient puddle to refresh the typical FloodClan layer of swamp mud on her fur that disguises her own scent. _You'd think they'd be extra careful to keep their kits away after that._

One more quick leap from the shadow of a boulder to behind a tall tuft of morosely swaying feathery grass, and the kit comes into view. He's heavyset, black-and-white. His legs are sodden and dirty up to his belly. He's shivering. And he's heading straight toward FloodClan territory, with the dogged, miserable posture of someone who really doesn't want to be doing this but is determined to do it anyway. Ratfang watches for several moments, checks the air one last time to be sure -- and yes, he's alone, unless the HighClanners have learned the trick of camoflauging their scents like her own Clan (which she doubts; their pride would hardly allow for constantly dirty pelts).

And the kit sets paw past the new scent marks, onto her territory. _Speculate later. Time to deal with this now._

"Well, well, well. A HighClan kit, alone and unprotected," says Ratfang, making her voice low and nasty. It has the intended effect -- the kit startles, jumps back, whirls around, ears and eyes and nose all working to detect this enemy warrior speaking to him from the shadows. She lets him stress for a long moment, then leaps dramatically out of the grasses, gives him her best battle-glare through narrowed eyes that gleam yellow in the dim light of the half-moon, and he crouches in fear. "Is this some mouse-brained attempt at revenge? You're hardly ready to take on a FloodClan warrior. Go on. Shoo. Back home to your mother."

He trembles in place, eyes darting between her and the surrounding marshes as if judging his chances at rushing past; she takes the step that brings her right up to the edge of the border and glares more intensely. "Don't even think about it. GET GONE."

He flinches, tail fluffed out to what must be four times its normal size, crouching so low his underside is pressed into the mud beneath him -- _that'll be a badger-fight and a half for him to clean out_ \-- but, interestingly and irritatingly, doesn't run. Instead, as Ratfang watches with growing incredulity (and some idle curiosity over whether the kit's a half-wit or he's really just got that much guts), he speaks.

Well, first he just squeaks, but after another couple of tries he manages to string together some recognizable words.

"I -- I -- " -- a pause to swallow -- "I can't go back. Back yet."

"And whyever not?" demands Ratfang, patience growing thinner by the heartbeat.

A moment passes, the kit hesitating, but just as she's about to swat him around the ear and see if that's enough to convince him to go away -- "StarClan. It -- It's StarClan. They told me to," he adds, voice growing smaller.

"...You're telling me that StarClan," says Ratfang, voice dripping with condescension, "wants _you_ to invade FloodClan."

"It was StarClan!" insists the kit, high-pitched, trembling harder. "I swear on Silverpelt, it was them! They said I had to -- to go this way -- it's the only way to stop the fights coming, we'll be like prey under the hunter's claws, bring back BlazeClan and it has to be me -- "

_Bring back BlazeClan, will you?_

And she is immediately filled with a violent rage.

"StarClan may have sent you a message," she hisses, holding very still, "But if you think I'm going to let you step one paw over that border, you're dead wrong."

This gets the kit fired up enough to become sort of eloquent. For a certain standard of eloquent, anyway. "What does _Mud_ Clan even know about StarClan anyway! You don't follow the warrior code, you -- you murdered Flametail! You're all murderers! And thieves! This is HighClan land! I bet StarClan doesn't even _talk_ to you anymore!" He's practically spitting by the end, although he stays crouched.

"Yes, I killed Flametail," snaps Ratfang, "and I'll kill every last cat in HighClan who tries to take our land from us, if it means that FloodClan will not go hungry this leaf-bare." She leans in, til her nose-tip bumps the kit's, speaks softly and clear as treacherously thin ice on the river in leaf-bare, with the same promise of death if you step wrong. "And that includes you." _Also, if HighClan tracks you here and finds your trail vanishing into FloodClan territory, we will have an all-out war on our paws, and I'm not so sure we can survive that, so please, just get scared already and run home, why don't you?_

He doesn't back down at the threat; in contrast, he seems almost not to have heard it. "You? It was you who killed her?" His eyes sparkle with rage now, to match hers. "Murderer!"

"Yes, we've established that," she growls, out of patience, and swats him hard across the face, claws carefully sheathed; he tumbles back and lands awkwardly. "Get OUT of here," she snarls after him, as he scrambles to his paws, "NOW!"

He shrieks wordlessly and (of course) doesn't listen; Ratfang easily intercepts his inelegant charge across the border back towards her territory and sends him bowling head over heels again.

Even that's not enough for him to give up. Oh, he doesn't try another charge, but as he gets to his feet and stalks away from her without looking back, his hackles are up and his stance is that of determination and not defeat.

Also, he's not trying to cross the border again, but neither is he heading back deeper into HighClan territory. Ratfang watches for several incredulous moments, then catches up to him in a couple quick bounds to say, "And just where do you think you're going? You know I can see you heading that way, I won't let you cross my land there either!"

"I'm not _going_ to," spits the kit. "I'm going to go _around_ MudClan's stupid borders and their whole stupid territory." He doesn't add _you mouse-brain,_ but she can hear it in the grit of his teeth.

She is so done with this nonsense. "You do that. I'm going to escort you the whole way and make sure you do what you say you're going to do."

And that's what they do. Neither of them speak again, aside from the kit (who says "fox dung!" when he steps on a bramble).

During the long, tedious trek, she has time for lots of thoughts, like:

_There goes the rest of my night._

_Oh StarClan, don't let HighClan catch up to us when it's just me and him out here, I'd get torn to pieces._

_With any luck, he'll run into a ClawClan border patrol and then this whole mess'll be their problem._

_Did StarClan really speak to him? Why would they choose a kit to send on a mission?_

_Hopefully this detour has put an end to whatever their plans were._

_BlazeClan_ isn't _coming back, not if I have anything to say about it._


End file.
